Pop Smoke’s second posthumous album, FAITH, is finally here — unfortunately without ‘The Woo’ yet again.
Complete with 20 tracks and a flooded feature list, Pop Smoke wooed listeners once more with help from Kanye West, Pusha T, Rick Ross, 21 Savage, 42 Dugg, Pharrell Williams, Future and others.
As fans continue to enjoy the album, FAITH debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top 200 Albums chart this week, selling 88,000 units. Pop Smoke now has two albums in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart, as the album was expected to sell anywhere between 110-120K units.
His team at Victor Victor has done a masterful job in paying homage to the fallen superstar — also curating a heartfelt passage from his mother on the opening track of the album. Pop Smoke’s captivating versatility is showcased throughout the record (much like on his debut posthumous release Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon), using his unique, deep voice to his advantage within FAITH’s varying genres.
Pop’s manager Steven Victor and his team released the deluxe to FAITH on Pop Smoke’s birthday. Adding four new songs to the project, Victor previously explained that multiple songs on the record were supposed to appear differently — having been unable to contact the respective estates for clearance of these tracks.
Y’all need to chill the original top Shotta beat wasn’t clearable.. could not find Louie rankin estate
— Steven-San Victor (@StevenVictor) July 17, 2021
working on the deluxe w Rico & obasi let us know what you want to hear
OG Manslaughter was a song called tricky dick by the train robbers
— Steven-San Victor (@StevenVictor) July 17, 2021
And every member of that group estates was unreachable the record label AND parent label were defunct with no point of contact = Could not clear We tried during the last album
FAITH is a cinematic portrayal of the Brooklyn talent’s dedication to his craft — reiterating his destiny to become the superstar he was blossoming into. While this trend of afterlife releases doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon (see Juice WRLD’s The Party Never Ends), both of Pop Smoke’s posthumous projects have been handled properly thus far, with the exception of Pusha T’s questionable verse on “Tell The Vision.”
.@PUSHA_T says Pop Smoke's #Faith is going to challenge for Album of the Year 🏆 pic.twitter.com/GWKFVgfOEn
— Complex Music (@ComplexMusic) July 16, 2021
Pusha promotes his upcoming album by saying it’ll achieve more than Tyler, The Creator and Pop’s latest efforts. However, one line in particular seems to be in poor taste, apparently dissing his long-time enemy Drake, rapping: “The crown is only for the king, they tryna place it on a clown.” While it’s unclear if this bar is truly directed at the Canadian hitmaker, the shoe seems to fit if it’s coming from King Push himself.
Regardless of the quick detour Pusha’s verse enables, FAITH appears to be everything fans have hoped for — knowing that The Woo will continue to live on as “the smoke will never clear.”
